The Igbo Elders Consultative Forum (IECF) has endorsed the candidate of the Labour Party (LP), Peter Obi for the 2023 presidential election.
Chairman of IECF and former governor of Anambra State, Dr Chukwuemeka Ezeife, made this known in an interview with reporters in Abuja on Friday.
Ezeife said the Igbo elders’ decision to back Obi was devoid of tribal sentiment.
He described the LP candidate as a “true unifier” whose emergence would bring a stop to separatist agitations, especially in the South-East geopolitical zone.
“We, before now, agreed in the Southern and Middle Belt Forum to call all the candidates from the South-East, interview them and adopt one person. But that has been overtaken by events. If you look at the candidates from A to Z, you find out that there is one from the South-East who is everybody’s candidate.
“He is the true unifier in Nigeria because he is someone who will banish poverty, banish insecurity, banish all the negatives associated with Nigeria. That person is Peter Obi and he is the person whom all of us will support,” Ezeife said.
The IECF chairman disclosed that it was the South East elders that prevailed on Obi to quit the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and seek his presidential ambition elsewhere.
“If you look at the records, you’ll find out that the elders in Abuja really worked hard to get him out as a candidate. We forced him to get out of the PDP so that he can be a candidate for president. So the question of even adopting him doesn’t arise as he is our trusted, God anointed candidate to remake and recreate Nigeria. He will make everybody happy.
“Obi will make Fulani belong to Nigeria and have a say. He will ensure Yoruba don’t want to go and will also make Igbo and all groups stay in Nigeria and have the country restructured to work,” Ezeife said.